• Journal of The Korean Society of Agricultural Engineers
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• v.55 no.4
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• pp.1-11
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• 2013

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function is one of key parameters to solve the flow phenomena in problems of landslide. Prediction models for hydraulic conductivity function related to soil-water retention curve equations in many geotechnical applications have been still used instead of direct measurement of the hydraulic conductivity function since prediction models from soil-water retention curve equations are attractive for their fast and easy use and low cost. However, many researchers found that prediction models for the hydraulic conductivity function can not predict the hydraulic conductivity exactly in comparison with experimental outputs. This research introduced an inverse analysis to evaluate the hydraulic conductivity function corresponding to experimental output from the flow pump system. Optimisation process was carried out to obtain the hydraulic conductivity function. This research showed that the inverse analysis with flow pump system was suitable to assess the hydraulic conductivity in unsaturated soil, and the prediction models for the hydraulic conductivity were led to the significant discrepancy from actual experimental outputs.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.47-51
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• 2004

An unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function and a soil-water characteristic curve are the essential constitutive factors in studying unsaturated soils. In order to obtain the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function, prediction functions, which are based on the soil-water characteristic curve, have been used because it is difficult to measure the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function directly. In this study, a parameter estimation method using the flow pump technique is introduced to determine the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function. This method provides more accurate and independent solution than previous methods for the determination of the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity function which is not subordinate to the soil-water characteristic curve or prediction models.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.99-101
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• 2003

Unsaturated hydraulic conductivity models have been widely used for the numerical modeling of water flow and contaminant transport in soils. In this study, a simple hydraulic conductivity model is developed by using information of particle-size distribution from the lognormal distribution model and its results are compared with those from the Kosugi-Mualem (KM) model. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified for observed data chosen from the international UNSODA database. Results showed that the proposed model produces adequate predictions of hydraulic conductivities. Performance of this model is generally better than the KM function.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.959-965
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• 2002

Effective hydraulic conductivity of a statistically anisotropic heterogeneous medium is obtained for steady two-dimensional flows employing stochastic analysis. Flow equations are solved up to second order and the effective conductivity is obtained in a semi-analytic form depending only on the spatial correlation function and the anisotropy ratio of the hydraulic conductivity field, hence becoming a true intrinsic property independent of the flow field. Results are obtained using a statistically anisotropic Gaussian correlation function where the anisotropy is defined as the ratio of integral scales normal and parallel to the mean flow direction. Second order results indicate that the effective conductivity of an anisotropic medium is greater than that of an isotropic one when the anisotropy ratio is less than one and vice versa. It is also found that the effective conductivity has upper and lower bounds of the arithmetic and the harmonic mean conductivities.

• Current Research on Agriculture and Life Sciences
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• v.29
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• pp.29-35
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• 2011

The relationship between hydrologic processes and scale is one of the more complex issues in surface water hydrology. Disturbances that change vegetation and/or soil properties have been known to subsequently alter the landscape. The primary objective of this study was to estimate the grain size of soils with different properties from the hydraulic conductivity using pedotransfer functions. The double ring infiltrometer method was used to measure the vertical hydraulic conductivity of three soils under different soil planar surface treatments. Seven selected pedotransfer functions were used to estimate percentile diameters and the reduction in infiltration caused by compaction was misconstrued as caused by changes in percentile diameter. Results showed that compaction on the sandy loamy foot paths reduced the hydraulic conductivity by about 50%. The study showed that perceptual models of infiltration processes and appreciation of scale problems in modeling are far more sophisticated than normally presented in texts. Hydraulic measurement methods are still relevant and will provide significant information of grain size of the soils.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.227-241
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• 1999

Groundwater flow in a fractured rock mass is related to the geometric characteristics of the fracture system. The objective of this study aims to analyze the probabilistic density function of fracture properties md their relations to the hydraulic conductivity in volcanic rocks of the northern Yosu area. Fracture characteristics were investigated by core logging and acoustic televiewer logging in four boreholes and the hydraulic conductivity was obtained from the constant pressure injection and fall-off tests. The 303 fractures were grouped into three sets by their orientation and three fracture types by the degree of opening in aperture. As a result of the study, the hydraulic conductivity in the test section intersected by open and semi-open fractures, conductive fractures, and set 1 fractures was very high, while closed fractures did rarely affect the hydraulic conductivity. It was recognized that the hydraulic conductivity in a fractured rock mass was preferentially affected by the aperture size of conductive fractures and fracture intersection frequency and size, secondly.

• Proceedings of the Korean Geotechical Society Conference
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• 2000.11a
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• pp.427-434
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• 2000

Hydraulic conductivity of soil-cement was measured as a function of some selected construction variables that are often encountered in practice. They are initial (or compaction) water content, delayed compaction after mixing, and repeated freezing and thawing. Sandy and clayey soils were used. The hardening agent used was a cement based soil stabilizer consisting of 80% of ordinary Portland cement and 20% of a combination of supplementary materials. Hydraulic conductivity of soil-cement with varying initial water content was, in trend, similar to that of compacted clay. Hydraulic conductivity of soil-cement decreased with increasing initial water content and reached its minimum when compacted wet of optimum water content. Pore size distributions of soil cement at different initial water contents were analyzed using mercury intrusion porosimetry. The analysis showed that dryer condition led to the formation of larger pores with lesser total pore volume; smaller pores with larger total pore volume at wetter condition. Hydraulic conductivity of soil-cement increased by orders in magnitude when specimen underwent delayed compaction of longer than 4 hours after mixing and repeated freezing and thawing.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.2369-2379
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• 2013

The Soil-Water Characteristics Curve (SWCC) is affected by the initial density of soil under unsaturated condition. Also, the characteristic of hydraulic conductivity is changed by the initial density of soil. To study the effect of initial density of unsaturated soil, SWCC and the Hydraulic Conductivity Function (HCF) of Jumoonjin sand with various relative densities, 40%, 60% and 75% were measured in both drying and wetting processes. As the results of SWCC estimated by van Genuchten (1980) model, the parameter related to Air Entry Value(AEV), ${\alpha}$ in the wetting process is larger than that in drying process, but the parameters related to the SWCC slope, n and the residual water content, m are larger than those in wetting process. The AEV is increased or Water Entry Value (WEV) is decreased with increasing the relative density of sand. The AEV is larger than the WEV at the same relative density of sand. As the results of HCF estimated by van Genuchten (1980) model which is one of the parameter estimation methods, the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity maintained at a saturated one in the low level of matric suctions and then suddenly decreased just before the AEV or the WEV. The saturated hydraulic conductivity in drying process is larger than that in wetting process. The saturated hydraulic conductivity is decreased with increasing the relative density of sand in both drying and wetting processes. Also, the hysteresis in unsaturated HCFs between drying and wetting process was occurred like the hysteresis in SWCCs. According to the test results, the AEV on SWCC is decreased and the saturated hydraulic conductivity is increased with increasing the initial density. It means that SWCC and HCF are affected by the initial density in the unsaturated soil.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.33 no.9
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• pp.5-22
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• 2017

The procedure that combines the result of infiltration analysis into stability analysis based on the limit equilibrium method is widely used to evaluate the impact of rainfall infiltration on slope stability. Accurate prediction of rainfall infiltration is essential to the prediction of landslides caused by rainfall, requires to obtain accurate unsaturated hydraulic properties of the soil. Among the unsaturated hydraulic characteristics of the soil, the importance of the soil-water characteristic curve describing the retained water characteristics of the soil is relatively well known and the measurement by test method to obtain the SWCC is gradually increasing. However, it takes a lot of time and expenses to experimentally measure the unsaturated conductivity characteristics of the soil. Therefore, it is common practice to estimate the hydraulic conductivity function from the SWCC. Although it is widely known that the SWCC has a great influence on rainfall infiltration, studies on the effect of the hydraulic conductivity function estimated from the SWCC on rainfall infiltration are very limited. In this study, we explained how the estimation model of the hydraulic conductivity function affects rainfall infiltration and slope stability analysis. To this end, one-dimensional infiltration analysis and slope stability analysis were conducted by using the data on the SWCC of weathered granite soil widely distributed in Korea. The applicability of each estimation model is discussed through review of the analysis results.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.44 no.1
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• pp.89-102
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• 2012

The buffer and backfill are important components of the engineered barrier system in a high-level waste repository, which should be constructed in a hard rock formation at a depth of several hundred meters below the ground surface. The primary function of the buffer and backfill is to seal the underground excavation as a preferred flow path for radionuclide migration from the deposited high-level waste. This study investigates the hydraulic conductivity and swelling pressure of Kyungju Ca-bentonite, which is the candidate material for the buffer and backfill in the Korean reference high-level waste disposal system. The factors that influence the hydraulic conductivity and swelling pressure of the buffer and backfill are analyzed. The factors considered are the dry density, the temperature, the sand content, the salinity and the organic carbon content. The possibility of deterioration in the sealing performance of the buffer and backfill is also assessed.